A leading Catholic member of the UK’s House of Lords is drawing attention to the persecution of the Church in China.

Lord David Alton said in a statement the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing is targeting ten bishops after they opposed the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, which requires its members to pledge independence from the Holy See and “conform Christian teaching to Chinese communist doctrine.”

Alton said seven of these bishops have been detained without due process, with some of them having been under continuous detention for years or decades, while others have been detained repeatedly, up to six times since the agreement’s signing.

Alton called them the “ten inconvenient bishops the Vatican wants us to forget.”

“Why? because they do not accept the right of the Chinese Communist Party to tell them what to believe, think or what to say,” he wrote.